Alone in the Dark delayed

It's a banner day for delays - first Spore and now, Atari's revealed, Alone in the Dark.

The next-gen survival-horror title - one of the most impressive behind-closed-doors demos at E3 this year - won't be out until the company's next fiscal year, sadly.

Which means nobody will get to play it until sometime between April 2007 and March 2008, although CEO Bruno Bonnell reckons it will "be probably the hit of our next year".

The game's currently confirmed for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with a PC version mooted but not confirmed, and Bonnell told investors yesterday that the series would make its way to other formats, with an announcement due "shortly".

As you'll know if you read our E3 preview, Alone in the Dark puts you in the role of Edward Carnby (again) and the action's entirely focused on New York's Central Park.

Some of the set-pieces look amazing, as does the general level of attention to detail, while developer Eden Studios also plans to use an episodic approach to the narrative to try and keep people interested.

Each "episode" in the full game will be about an hour long, topped and tailed with "previously on" and "next week on" style shorts to refresh the returning player's memory and entice them to continue respectively.

For more on the game check out our game-page, with trailers, shots and previews.